Had to get in some training, for it´s that time of year again, and I have to get in the miles. To keep up with my buddies, and to get to a CERTAIN city by bike;-), which is no small task for me... Also I agreed to ride a race this year ( I must have been drunk as sh*t*ggg*)... I did some road riding. On the lane it was quite warm, and I was soon all sweaty... Near Iserlohn I passed by this cave. It´s in a rock formation that is called "Pater und Nonne" (preacher and nun). There is a tale hanging by it. As it seems, once upon a time, when a squirrel could hop from treetop to treetop from the North to the South of Germany still, there was a priest in Iserlohn who developed a sort of unhealthy relationship to a nun in a nearby cloister. They fell in love, and you should not do that, so God himself cursed them both and enchanted them into those two rocks, unable to move, but standing side by side forever. Guess which one of the two I took a photo of...;-)
On I rode along the road. It was arduous, for it was tha first endurance ride over two hours of the season, and with a good deal of climbing involved. Doing endurance riding is always kind of boring, as far as riding is involved, for you have to take care not doing it too intensively. As there was a big hill involved, it was the granny gear a lot of the time... but the vista made up for it. This is home to me. Hills in the distance, ever rolling and rolling until one of them is the last that cuts into the sky...
These are the hills of the Sauerland. Smooth hills, deeply carved and weathered valleys. This is on the top of a hill near Wiblingwerde. It was getting very coooooold, so I made for a café I always stop by when I am around. It is a very small village, so small in fact that you can leave your bike unlocked. Did not do that, though;-). Had a cuppa coffee and some delicious tarts (No, not the ones with the togas, Joel, IN CASE YOU ASK;-)) It was right welcome, for I had some kind of a hunger flash. Then I figured I was done with road riding and made for the trails. That was a great diversion, I can tell you. It was getting late already, but in this birch grove I simply had to stop and sip a tea from my flask and do some stump sitting. It was being snowy, and it was sort of a weird feeling, getting there from sea level and riding through the winter wonder woods;-), when on the lane it was so warm I had to take my windbreaker off... I simply love that, for it makes me feel I can get out there. It is like you pass a threshold, a border that is not at all physically set, but in your mind and in the atmosphere. When I get out to the woods, regardless if I am on foot or on my bike, there always seems to be something like a point of no return, a night line that is drawn between the forest and "the woods". I guess many of you out there may feel the same. It´s not a big thing that is happening, and the road may be just behind the next line of trees. But as it happens in your mind, it is a great thing no less. It always succeeds to give me so much strength back, and I crave for it.
